know the score

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

    Even in a fast-moving game, a player who knows that the score is, say, 86-83, is in no way especially in the know. He just happens to know what the score is; it's really no big deal.  I can't think of a single instance in which any admiration was attached to someone (player, spectator, manager, coach) knowing what the score of the game was. It's just too easy to find out if there's any uncertainty.

             On the other hand, "he knows the score" (say, of a symphony) really *is*
        spoken with admiration. It means that the person has command over all the
        intricacies of the musical score. He can discuss the music confidently and in
        detail with anyone interested. *He* is the person in the know.

             Now, once the expression originated in music (as I suppose and have
        always taken for granted), it was assumed by many (most?) sports fans to
        come from their bailiwick. I believe we see here a classic case of an
        expression originating in one social context and then being misinterpreted as
        coming from another.

             But let's see if ads-l's data-base sleuths can turn up hard evidence one
        way or the other.

        Gerald Cohen
> ----------
> From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of RonButters at AOL.COM
> Sent:         Saturday, September 11, 2004 3:38 PM
> Subject:           Re:       Re: know the score
>
> It never occurred to me that "know the score" could refer to anything EXCEPTgames. Certainly, the musical connection makes sense, too, and I suppose there
> MAY be some way to find some definitive earliest use that will indicate one  or the other is historically the most plausible. One could argue against Gerald
> here that playing games is culturally far more important than playing musical instruments; therefore, it is far more likely that the term arose in sports than in music. Also, Cohen seems to limit the origin of the term to spectators, but it seems to me that it is far more likely to be something that would apply to participants--and when is actually playing a game (esp. a fast-action
> game such as football or basketball) it is not quite so easy to keep track of the score as Cohen suggests. Cohen also totally ignores the potential role of irony: "I know the score" is often used to mean "I am NOT stupid!" In addition, I would argue that "know the score" has a certain underworldy/slangy feel to it that seems not quite right for musicians--and anyway, who memorizes "the score"?
>
> But I'm not really arguing for one or the other so much as to argue that there may be a sort of pointlessness to "stands to reason" arguments about the origins of words.
>
>